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What are Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Guides?
- A note about secondary sources
- Other secondary sources
- Legal dictionaries
- Encyclopedias
- Online guides
- Citation guides
Finding Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Guides
- Searching v. browsing
- Dictionary use sample
- Encyclopedia use sample
- The online guide uses a sample
- The citation guide uses a sample
Citing Secondary Sources
- Citing secondary sources: The Bluebook
- Guidelines and samples
- Citing dictionaries
- Citing encyclopedias
- Citing other sources: Articles
- Citing other sources: Books, reports, treatises
Transcript
Hi. I\’m Matt, and this is lesson four of legal resources and authorities. This lesson is about dictionaries, encyclopedias, and guides.
We\’ll begin this lesson by explaining what legal dictionaries, encyclopedias, and guides are. Then we\’ll show how to locate them online.
The final section will discuss appropriate ways to cite resources you find in dictionaries, encyclopedias, and guides.
Legal dictionaries, encyclopedias, and guides are secondary sources. Secondary sources can help you understand issues, get background information, and so on, but they are not authoritative or binding on a court.
Though we\’re not dismissing other secondary sources like reports, treatises, and law articles, we focus this lesson on dictionaries, encyclopedias, and guides because they are more useful for and more likely to be used by pro se litigants.
Let\’s begin with dictionaries. Everybody knows what a dictionary is. They\’re sources organized alphabetically that define terms. Legal dictionaries focus on terminology used in US courts. In addition to definitions, they may have examples of term use and related cases as well as links to more in-depth information.
You don\’t have to pay for a legal dictionary. Credible, tried and true online sources include Free Legal Dictionary, Black\’s Law Dictionary, and Nolo\’s Free Dictionary of Law Terms.
Encyclopedias are organized alphabetically and provide general information on a wide range of legal topics. They explain legal topics or concepts in-depth, including background and history. Like dictionaries, they include sample legal cases. If you don\’t know where to start in your research, an encyclopedia is a good choice.
Legal encyclopedias have evolved with the increase of online guides.
Still, there are two highly recommended free legal encyclopedias, Nolo\’s legal dictionary and encyclopedia and Wex legal encyclopedia from Cornell Law School.
Online guides are similar to encyclopedias in that they\’re organized by topic areas, supplement knowledge, and are good starting places for research.
They differ in that outside sources provide in-depth information via links from the host site. The best online guides are annotated and curated by librarians.
Four good sources for online guides include Emory Law Guide, George Mason University law guide, Duke law research guide, and Justia.
There is a right way and a wrong way to refer to statutes, cases, dictionaries, and other sources in your legal writing. Citation guides show you the right way. They\’re more appropriately defined as how to guides rather than secondary sources, but they are critical to successful legal writing.
Some of the best sources for legal citation guides include Florida A and M citation guide, Cornell University Law Library, Georgetown Law Library Blue Book Guide, and Gallagher Law Library at the University of Washington.
Two main ways to look for information on the web, searching and browsing, should be familiar to you. To search, you type a keyword into a text box and get back results with that keyword. You can now narrow a search by using fewer words or broaden the search by using more. To browse, you can scan down a page, scroll, and link where necessary.
Let\’s look back at our scenario from lesson one. Preston sued psychologist, Merrill, alleging that Merrill suggested false memories of childhood rape to Preston\’s daughter, Gloria.
Merrill feels that since Preston was not his patient, he\’s not responsible for the other man\’s alleged emotional distress.
Merrill begins his research by using Nolo\’s dictionary to look for duty. With Nolo, he doesn\’t have to type any keywords. He only has to browse by linking to the letter d and scanning the d page.
Merrill adds standard of care and duty of care to his keywords, but still wants more information about duty and care. He uses an encyclopedia, Wex, to search for these words.
This results in cases that use the word duty and the word care. If he wanted to be more precise, he can place duty of care in quotes. The results of that search in the small third box on the screen show that duty, of, and care are kept together. This narrows the search to only those cases that keep all three words together and in order.
Preston\’s position is that even if he wasn\’t Merrill\’s patient, the psychologist owed him a certain level of care. He knows nothing about the topic and is not sure where to start.
He goes online to search George Mason Law Library\’s guide and finds other resources and guides that can help him understand his topic more and supplement his arguments.
Preston eventually finds a recent medical report that says exactly what he needs it to say about the responsibilities of therapists to third parties.
He wants to use the report in a response to a motion to dismiss but doesn\’t know how to cite the report in his motion. He consults Georgetown Law Library\’s Blue Book guide.
Secondary sources in legal documents should be used sparingly and only as supplemental information. For instance, if an appellate case in your jurisdiction fully explains a term, use of a dictionary to explain that same term is superfluous.
However, if a case or statute falls short of explaining a term or concept, a dictionary explanation is appropriate.
The remainder of this section will look at samples from secondary resources and how to cite them in legal arguments. The source used for these purposes is Georgetown Library\’s Blue Book Guide.
Say you\’ve found that dictionary definition that adds punch to your motion to dismiss. If you want to use it, cite it. What\’s important when citing a dictionary?
Page number, edition, and year of publication.
This sample defines the term malpractice and properly cites it.
Citing encyclopedias is a little more complex than citing dictionaries. You need volume number, encyclopedia name, article title, and so on. The sample here shows good supplemental information.
The article, in fact, seems to call into question the duration of a woman\’s purported pregnancy.
It\’s highly unlikely that a pro se litigant will ever need law review or other articles, but you will come across a few in your reading.
To cite them, include the author\’s name, article title, volume number, periodical name, page number, and year of publication.
Yes. Include all of that.
Citing books and reports requires that you include the author\’s name, title, page number, and publication information.
This sample adds to a legal argument by shedding light on the concept of mental suffering.
In summary, we define dictionaries, encyclopedias, and guides. We began the section on finding dictionaries, encyclopedias, and guides with a discussion of searching versus browsing and then looked at sample use of and resources for dictionaries, encyclopedias and guides.
The final section focused on citing secondary sources in general.
Next up, lesson five, local rules.